Golden Opportunity
by Ammarylliss
Summary: Four clans, two truces, two wars. "Elven kind shouldn't fight one another." NuadaOC. Rated M for later chapters. Takes place before and during HBII. REVIEWS ARE LOVED, so please review!
1. Introduction

_A / N: Only the introduction. It's kind of lame – its 3:30 am here, and I just came up with it after watching Hellboy II (again). Anyway, like I said, only introduction, it should get better. _

_Also, with the title, I wasn't really sure if I liked it, but it's kind of growing on me. If anyone has other suggestions, feel free to message me, write a review, whatever floats your boat._

_Disclaimer:_ _I don't own Hellboy, Bethmoora, Nuala, Nuada, Balor, or any other characters within the movie(s). I would like to own them, but I don't. I only own the characters whose names you do not recognize, such as Aureila and Callum, Peredur, etc. You get it. Also, I don't own behindthename(com). Wish I did, great site. _

* * *

**GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY  
**INTRODUCTION

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In the Elven World, there were four clans in total. The Aeronwy clan lived close to the water, and was close allies and friends to the Tesni clan of the Sky. The Sons of the Earth, the Bethmoora clan was ruler of all clans, and close allies to their also Earth guarding friends, the Illtyd clan of Earth. The Bethmoora clan took to the forests, while the Illtyd clan took to underneath the ground, and the Tesni clan lived high in the mountains, close to the sky.

A war broke out between the clans, and the Bethmoora clan banded together with the Illtyd Clan, while the Tesni and Aeronwy clans banded together. The war caused many elves to die, and blood was spilled over the green grasses and fertile lands. King Owain of the Illtyd clan lost his son Kieneiro in the battle, and went to his friend King Balor. The two kings of the earth decided to call upon a truce between the four Elven Royalties.

_"Elven kind should not fight one another"_

Balor spoke. He sent word to the other two clans, calling them to a sacred ground in Bethmoora, where the four royal families could speak in peace and work out a truce that would be carried on until the end of time.

The sons and daughters of the four royal families would be married off to one another, creating ties between the feuding families.

Prince Peredur of the Bethmoora clan was to marry Princess Aureila of Aeronwy.

Princess Nuala of Bethmoora was to marry Prince Pryderi of Tesni.

Prince Callum of Aeronwy was to marry Princess Rhosyn of Illtyd.

Prince Idris of the Illtyd clan was to marry Princess Eirian of Tesni.

All ties were held within those four marriages. The feuding families were held together by their sons and daughters who were to wed those of who they disliked.

It was set, and the marriages were to take place within the course of a year. All royal families were to spend their days at Bethmoora until the weddings. Although, even though something is set, doesn't mean that things can't go as planned.

* * *

_Okay, few things I want to put in here. This is only the introduction, as I say again.  
Also, all the names I got were from behindthename, a wonderful site filled with oodles and oodles of great names. Check it out sometime. Also, I wanted to put in what each name meant and all. All the names, or at least most of them, are Welsh, because I love Welsh names, I think they're so pretty._

_Aureila (f) – I kind came up with this one. In my translation, it means 'gold snow'. Remember that, it might come in handy in later chapters._

_Callum (m) – Didn't find it on behindthename, I borrowed it from an actor by the name of _Callum Keith Rennie_, from _**Blade: Trinity. **_Thanks, Callum._

_Eirian (f) – meaning 'bright, beautiful'_

_Eurig (m) – meaning 'gold'_

_Glyndwr (m) – meaning 'valley, water'_

_Idris (m) – meaning 'ardent lord'_

_Isolde (f) – meaning 'beautiful'_

_Owain (m) – this doesn't really have a meaning. It's kind of confusing to describe, but one of its terms means 'youth' so, I'm sticking with that._

_Peredur (m) – meaning 'hard spears'_

_Pryderi (m) – meaning 'care'_

_Rhiannon (f) – meaning 'great queen'_

_Rhosyn (f) – meaning 'rose'_

_Now, for the clans._

_Aeronwy (feminine meaning) – from the suffix meaning 'river'_

_Illtyd (masculine meaning) – meaning 'multitude of land'_

_Tesni (feminine meaning) – meaning 'warmth from the sun'_

_I think they fit the clans well, with the 'elements and guardians' and all. Anyway, I hope you liked my crappy 'I wrote it at 3 am' introduction, and hope you wait for the real story to begin. If not, well, I tried._

_- Ammarylliss_


	2. Bethmoora

**GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY  
**BETHMOORA

* * *

The long journey from Aeronwy to Bethmoora had taken four days on horseback. It was long, and seemed to drag on for much longer than it needed to be, but finally, the royal family from Aeronwy made it to their destination. It was the first time both Callum and Aureila had been to Bethmoora, but their parents had both been once before, for official business. Most of the ride was smooth, for the land they were on now was in the land of Men, and it was mostly flat. The horses had an easier time across the plain than they did in the west, where the Illtyd clan resided. The Illtyd region had large chasms in the land, making it harder for the horses to cross without injuries. The lands in the east, where Bethmoora resided had much smaller chasms, and were most like ditches than anything. But, since they were not coming from the west, the royal family of the Aeronwy clan had a much easier time.

The world was split into different regions, ruled by different people. The east was ruled by King Balor, as King of Elfland, and he kept to his eastern side. The west was ruled by their brothers; the Illtyd clan and they kept to their side, but often crossed into Bethmoora territory upon their friendship. The Aeronwy clan remained south, where the land cut off and the sea took over. And the Tesni clan remained in the north, where they lived high in the mountains, close to the sky. And finally, the region of Man, who occupied the middle, the center of the world, which wasn't so much a world, just land surrounded by more land, and water to the south. Man lived in between all the elfin families and their corresponding elements. Often, Man would come to the aid of the elves around them, and elves would return the favor.

Though, now that the war between the elves had broken out, Man decided not to enter in the affairs of their immortal counterparts, and stayed to their villages and in their own region.

* * *

"Please, wait here for a moment; King Balor won't be long..." An elder Bethmoora elf-maid, with a chalky white skin tone, golden eyes and pale blonde, almost white hair, led the royal family of Aeronwy into what looked like a small sitting room inside the underground Bethmoora palace. The palace was quite beautiful for being constructed of simply rock. The main colors were browns and slight hues of greens, obviously to resemble the earth's colors. The rooms and halls were constructed again of rock, but had tapestries lining the walls in brown and gold colors, and at the bottom of each tapestry was the Seal of Bethmoora.

Almost everything Aureila had seen today had the seal on it; even the maid wore the round, gold seal on her bodice. It must have symbolized that she worked for the royal family.

The maid left, and the royal family was left to wait for the King of Elfland and his family, who would most likely be accompanying him. It was nerve-wracking, meeting the king of all elves. Aureila could barely sit still, and her mother had to stop her shifting every few seconds. Aureila took often deep breaths, then would play with the sleeve of her shirt, or twirl a strand of hair around her finger. She bit her lip a few times that she thought she would draw blood, but either her mother or Callum stopped her.

Callum and the others seemed quite calm. King Glyndwr was inspecting the royal seal on the wall, while Queen Rhiannon was sitting beside her daughter, a hand on her shoulder, to try and calm her young daughter's nerves. Callum was standing beside Aureila, and he seemed the calmest of all. Finally, after a dragging on silence, Aureila stood, "He will not like me, and I know it." She started pacing, wringing her hands in the process, "I will be a disgrace to Aeronwy. He will dislike me, and the truce will be broken, and it will be my fault entirely!" She started breathing faster and she tugged on her green dress. Rhiannon stood and rushed to her daughter's side, calming and telling her that what she was saying was simple nonsense.

"Aureila, my dear, calm down. What is not to like about you?" She asked, placing a pale white hand on her daughter's face, "You are a beautiful, intelligent young girl. He will like you, and the truce shall not be broken. You must believe in yourself, my dear." She kissed Aureila's forehead and smoothed out the girls blonde-white hair.

The large golden-brown doors opened again, and the same maid, accompanied by two others, walked behind an elderly elf, King Balor. He was a tall man, and had the look of a warrior, which was no surprise to Aureila, since she had heard he was the One-Armed King of Elfland. His face was pale, as pale and chalky white as the maid from earlier. His eyes not only showed that he had many years of wisdom, but that he was also kind.

Rhiannon and Glyndwr stood beside their children, and the four bowed to the king of Bethmoora. King Balor was kind and he smiled at the four, stepping forward to greet the Aeronwy royal family. "King Glyndwr, it has been a long time," He spoke in the old Elfish tongue as he addressed them "And Queen Rhiannon, still as young and radiant as ever." He smiled at the two and turned to their children. "Prince Callum. You I have heard much about. A great warrior, so I have been told." Callum smiled and bowed his head in thanks to the king. Finally, King Balor turned to Aureila, and she took a deep breath and smiled. "Ah, young Princess Aureila. A lovely young elf, I see. Lovely, like your mother."

"I thank you, King Balor" She bowed her head and tried her best at the old Elfish. She was rusty, since nowadays; the Elves spoke in the tongue of Man. Man had taught the Elves how to speak in their native tongue, so that it made trade easier between the two races. Goblins, trolls and other creatures who could speak also learned the tongue of Man to make it easier on Man as well (though, Man never saw much of the said creatures).

King Balor smiled at the family, before turning back to Glyndwr, "My friend, come. The Illtyd and Tesni clans have arrived as well. We must converse" He turned back to Rhiannon, "My nephew and children shall be here shortly. They are greeting the other guests." And he smiled once again, leaning Aureila's father out into the hall, maids following again.

As soon as the door closed, Aureila exhaled a breath that she had been holding for a while. "I was so nervous!" She stated, putting a hand to her heart as her brother and mother laughed slightly. Rhiannon turned to her children, "You know what the princes' names are, correct?"

"Prince Peredur and Prince Nuada." Aureila nodded

"And the princess?"

"Princess Nuala." Callum added, also nodding

Rhiannon smiled at her children and kissed both of their foreheads. "Oh, my darlings. I'm proud of you both." She sighed

* * *

Nuada's smile left his face as soon as the door closed. Both Nuala and Peredur were beside him a second later, Peredur's smile gone, but Nuala had the smallest hint of a smile left, gracing her face. The princes and princess of Bethmoora had just finished their long and quite boring talk with the king from Illtyd, and his children, Rhosyn and Idris. Rhosyn had taken a quick fancy to Peredur, which he in turn wasn't too fond of, but he smiled anyway, as a polite prince would. Peredur sighed as Nuada and Nuala headed down the hall, to meet the next family. The Aeronwy family of the south was not allies to Bethmoora, which was why Peredur, Nuada's closest friend, and cousin, was now engaged to the princess of Aeronwy.

Peredur wasn't too fond of an arranged marriage, but hadn't even met the girl yet, so didn't make any assumptions about the elf and her culture. He hadn't even seen anyone from Aeronwy before, or Tesni, until today. The Tesni family was actually quite entertaining, and their king wasn't as boring as King Owain of Illtyd. The king of Tesni, Eurig, had various stories of his past when he fought beside King Balor in a war hundreds of year's back, when the four elfin regions were all bound by friendship.

The door leading them into yet another room was coming up, and the princes were quite tired of meeting families now. They had already met Nuala's husband-to-be, Pryderi, whom both Nuada and Peredur had gotten along well with, which was a surprise to Peredur as he didn't think Nuada would like the fact of his twin being married off. Unlike Nuala and Peredur, Nuada wasn't being married, because King Balor decided that at least one of his children needed to remain a true Bethmoora elf, and since Peredur wasn't his true son, Nuada was left.

Both princes and the princess stopped outside the final door. It was gold and brown, just like the others, and very tall. Outside the door was another maid waiting to open the door for them. The maid looked to the three and Nuada nodded, and she opened the door, "Your highnesses."

Inside were three elves, all pale in color tone, yet they didn't have the chalky look to them as did the Illtyd and Bethmoora clans did. Nuada quickly realized that the Tesni family members also had this color skin tone. _They, unlike us, do not live underground._ He reminded himself. The Tesni clan lived close to the sky, which meant a lot of sun exposure, and the Aeronwy clan lived near the waters, also more sun exposure.

Their mother, Queen Rhiannon, stood and bowed to the royals, and the three bowed their heads back. Queen Rhiannon was dressed in the Aeronwy colors, blues and greens, to signify the sea. Her dress was a dark blue long-sleeved gown, which dropped to the floor. The sleeves were triangle cut towards the hands, and like the rest of the top, was tight fitting. The dress allowed for a view of both a long pale neck and collarbone. The skirt part of the dress was dark blue, and became lighter as it traveled farther to the ground. Her hair was a golden-white color, darker than Nuala's and traveled past her shoulders. Half of it was pulled over one shoulder and it was braided.

Callum had a simpler choice in clothing. Black pants, like Nuada and Peredur, tucked into black boots, and a sea-blue tunic, donned with the crest of Aeronwy, and a darker blue sash around his waist. His hair was also a darker shade of that same white and gold, and about the same length as Nuada and Peredur's, at shoulder length.

Lastly was the daughter, Aureila, who currently had her back turned to them. She had longer hair than Nuala and Rhiannon, and it was a much lighter than her mother and brother's hair. And, unlike everyone else in the room, the bottom tips were not golden, but it remained the same blonde-white color. Her dress was styled differently from her mother's as well. It had V-like shape on the back, in which the two pieces were held together by thread, much like a corset would be and it showed a subtle amount of pale skin. The gown was dark sea-green, which almost held a tint of grey to it. The top section was a tight fit and it hugged her waist in an attractive manner without too guady looking. It also was long sleeves, and the skirt, like her mother's, was two toned, though the green became darker instead of lighter. When she turned, Nuada saw that she had also the same show of a pale neck and collarbone.

Nuada had to admit, this girl was very different. She intrigued him. But, it wasn't her attractive figure of her off coloring of hair that got his attention. It was her eyes.

He, like his sister and cousin, had never seen that color of eyes on an elf before. Unlike the normal color of gold, hers were far different; dark turquoise-blue color. They were odd, yet, also very fitting. Nuada tried to picture her with the normal gold eyes and gold-white hair, but he couldn't see her like that. She seemed nervous, Nuada could sense, and she wasn't very subtle about it. Her fingers were twisting around each other, fiddling nervously as the princes and princess of Bethmoora stood in the room.

Nuala was first to speak up in the almost-awkward silence. "A pleasure to meet you, Queen Rhiannon," She stepped forward from beside Nuada and bowed her head, "Father has said many good things about you and King Glyndwr."

Rhiannon smiled and stepped out from between her children, "Princess Nuala. A pleasure to meet you, as well," She ushered for the three to come into the room more. "I have heard many a great things about you. All of you."

Aureila was very nervous. She was meeting her future husband, and he was in the very room she was in. All the anxiety she had before came back and hit her like a goblin would hit metal. Her mother and Nuala were already conversing, and Callum had made his way towards Nuada, probably so that Aureila had no other choice but to talk with Peredur. Her eyes darted around the room quickly and she inclined her head down, and stared at the floor upon Peredur moving her way.

She made it look as if she were bowing her head, and she blinked looking at the floor, then Peredur's shoes as they were suddenly in her line of vision. "Prince Peredur..."

* * *

**A/N:** okay, I really hope that I kept Nuada in character, and I hope that the dialogue was something you would expect in an elfin world. I was really having trouble with it actually, I was trying so hard not to use apostrophes and the like – our-time writing, so to speak.

Reviews are loved, and sorry this took so long!

Oh, yeah, so, I made the Elven race a little different. I didn't want them all to be the same, so don't flame me for it! It made good sense in my mind, so maybe it will make sense in yours too.


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